]]>A grand jury in West Baton Rouge (La.) indicted former Brusly police officers Dan Cipriano and Anthony Dupre after a video of them being violent with a middle-schooler was leaked.

Cipriano was charged with simple battery and Dupre received a charge of malfeasance in office for their actions when arresting the student, reports CBS News.

Simple battery could lead to six months in prison or a fine of up to $1,000, according to the Washington Post. Malfeasance in office is punishable by up to five years in prison or a fine of up to $5,000.

Video surveillance from Oct. 5 shows one officer wrestling with the 14-year-old boy at Brusly Middle School and slamming him to the ground. The second officer enters to assist in handcuffing the student and hurls the student against a desk.

Staff members seem to be in panic during the incident and one woman is shown covering her face with her hands.

While it is still unknown why the officers reacted with such force, the boy admitted to reaching for Dupre’s gun at one point.

The video shows a staff member picking one of the officer’s unholstered guns from the floor and putting it on the table.

Both officers resigned in November upon the request of Brusly Police Chief Jonathan Lafeaux. He felt the officers would face difficulties if they continued to work in the community.

Family members of the teen feel that more severe charges are warranted, especially with the video evidence.

“They feel the DA’s office did an adequate job by bringing it quickly to the people but feel it was a slap on the wrist based on the tape and what they saw done to their grandson,” said Kwame Asante, the student’s attorney.

According to the student’s grandmother, he was left with bruises on his face and cut on his chin, but she fears for the possible psychological effects he could face.

“Since the incident, he went in the hospital with more trauma,” she said.

]]>Alabama education officials are drafting a new policy that will ensure all public school systems are able to monitor student sex offenders.

Allowing convicted sex offenders back into school can be a controversial subject. However, the state of Alabama requires all children 16 and younger to be enrolled in some form of schooling, whether it be private, public or home-schooled.

Within the next two years, each local education authority will adopt the policy, reports NBC 15.

School personnel will meet with all juvenile sex offenders to create individualized safety plans for each student, according to a draft of the model policy.

All offenders will have to submit an application to be on school property and attend school functions.

After his conviction, the boy returned to school where he interacted with Annalyn’s brother.

“You can imagine how horrified we were,” Annalyn’s mother said. “We had no forewarning. No one told us this was possible at all…for our son to have to go to school every day and see the person who abused his little sister?”

The law, passed earlier this year, requires police to notify school superintendents about juvenile sex offenders.

]]>Campus Safety, the brand that schools, universities and healthcare facilities have come to know and trust for more than a quarter century, is facing a crossroads of conscience. As many of you know, in recent years there has been a proliferation of door blocking devices hitting the market. The intention of the companies that manufacture these barricades is to save lives by preventing active shooters from entering classrooms or other areas where students, faculty, clinicians or others might be taking shelter.

However, these devices come with risk because they could prevent individuals with disabilities and, under some circumstances, even persons who don’t have any disabilities from evacuating a building during an emergency, such as a fire. That’s why access control and lock experts say these door barricades violate the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) as well as National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) codes. Although some jurisdictions are allowing these products to be adopted for situations requiring lockdown, experts say the risks outweigh the benefits. Multiple experts, organizations and associations have come out against door blocking devices.

Over the past several years, Campus Safety has described in great detail the challenges with these devices in numerous print and online editorials and in sessions at our Campus Safety Conferences, while maintaining strict abidance to our long-standing editorial policy to never endorse a particular product. Our stance has been to lay out as much information as possible and let you, the campus safety experts, make your own product, technology, policy and training choices.

At the same time, Campus Safety has accepted advertising from various door barricade companies.

But our conscience has been stirred to the breaking point, driven by the potential dangers of barricade devices to students, faculty, administrators, clinicians, patients and others. Thus, Campus Safety, with the support of our parent company Emerald Expositions, is publicly choosing to no longer accept advertising or sponsorships from non-ADA and non-NFPA compliant door barricade companies. Quite simply, it is the right thing to do.

ASIS, PASS, DSSF & DHI Applaud CS Policy Change

Campus Safety’s policy change is being applauded by a wide range of campus security experts, associations and other organizations:

“ASIS International School Safety & Security Council appreciates Campus Safety magazine’s and the Campus Safety Conferences’ change in direction regarding dangerous non-code compliant barricade devices. While we know schools are anxious to provide quick solutions for active shooter situations, we must make sure that life safety codes are respected and avoid the potential harm to a student, teacher or anyone else who could be trapped in a classroom against their will without the ability to escape. The Council looks forward to bringing best practices to the readers of Campus Safety.” — Mark J. Berger, Chair, ASIS international School Safety & Security Council

“The Partner Alliance for Safer Schools (PASS) fully supports the stand Campus Safety magazine and the Campus Safety Conferences are taking on barricade and ‘door-blocker’ devices. We stand with other organizations including the National Association of State Fire Marshals, Safe and Sound Schools, Secure Schools Alliance, Door and Hardware Institute, Door Security and Safety Foundation, Security Industry Association and many more in opposing the deployment of these devices. In addition to life safety and fire code challenges, these devices also violate the ADA law. There are code- and ADA-compliant solutions that work and are currently in use in most schools. According to the Sandy Hook Commission, there is not one documented instance of an active shooter breaching a locked door. We have additional concerns with many of these devices that interfere with the efforts of emergency responders to quickly and safely reach staff and students during emergencies. At a time when many districts are re-evaluating their security measures and making new investments, it is now more critical than ever to ensure the use of proven, vetted and code-compliant security practices and make the most of limited resources.” — Guy Grace, PASS Chairman

“Door Security and Safety Foundation (DSSF) and Door and Hardware Institute (DHI) thanks Campus Safety Magazine and the Campus Safety Conferences for recognizing the dangerous unintended consequences of installing non-code compliant barricade devices on campus classroom doors. While barricade devices are perceived as providing security, they violate fire and life safety building codes including the Americans with Disabilities Act. DSSF is committed to ensuring that campuses are safe havens for students, faculty, administrators and visitors.” — Jerry Heppes DSSF and DHI CEO

Campuses Must Carefully Select Solutions

The door barricade conundrum highlights the larger issue of how schools, universities and hospitals select the safety and security solutions and policies they implement. It is critical for a college campus, school district or healthcare organization to hire vetted and qualified consultants, systems integrators, engineers and other vendors for guidance on this task.

For the most part (although not always), these professionals should have experience working on your type of campus or organization. For example, a K-12 district should probably consult with an expert in school security. The expert should also have experience in dealing with the particular issue your campus wants addressed. For example, a university wanting to be able to quickly lockdown its classroom doors should consult with a professional who fully understands ADA and NFPA codes.

Additionally, multiple campus stakeholders as well as those in your community should be involved in the decision-making process so one person’s lack of expertise on a particular topic can be addressed by the others. Those stakeholders should include administrators, the C-suite, the superintendent, law enforcement, IT, security system technicians, architects, facilities, fire, emergency management, faculty, clinicians, parents, students (when appropriate) and more.

It’s also important to note that every security and public safety solution and policy — even if it is ADA- and NFPA-code compliant — carries with it some risk. That’s why Campus Safety regularly covers equipment selection, installation, deployment, maintenance, policy and training best practices. We urge all school, university and healthcare facility stakeholders to review this content on CampusSafetyMagazine.com, in our print publication and at our conferences. It is our mission to have every school, university and hospital in America adopt the best solutions possible for their specific situation and campus, install them in the proper locations, support them with the appropriate policies and use them correctly.

We trust that our decision to not accept advertisements or sponsorships from non-ADA and non-NFPA-code compliant door barricade companies will help clear up any confusion surrounding the complex issue of campus lockdowns and active shooter response.

]]>The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission has released an initial draft of its school safety recommendations.

The commission, which was created to investigate the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and make safety recommendations, hosted a two-day meeting this week to discuss the initial report findings with the intention of presenting a final report to the governor and legislative leader by Jan. 1, reports WTXL.

The 407-page report outlines many lapses in school safety and security before, during and after the shooting, which the commission says is typical of many schools nationwide. The report also offers recommendations for various ways the school can improve overall safety.

The commission’s new report further supports these findings, claiming seven other Broward County deputies ignored protocol for active shooters that calls for pursuing a gunman to try to disarm him. Officers also wasted more time scrambling to retrieve bulletproof vests from their vehicles, reports The New York Times.

“None of these BSO deputies immediately responded to the gunshots by entering the campus and seeking out the shooter,” the report said. “Deputy sheriffs who took the time to retrieve vests from containers in their cruisers, removed certain equipment they were wearing so that they could put on their vests, and then replaced the equipment they had removed all while shots were being fired, or had been recently fired, is unacceptable and contrary to accepted protocol.”

Report Criticizes Employees, School Safety Training

The report also blamed school policy and training failures for many of the mistakes made by employees, claiming administrators lacked know-how in conducting threat assessments, did not have an active assailant response policy or a written policy on how to initiate a lockdown, and gave no formal training to campus monitors, according to The Sun Sentinel.

The commission has called on the district to investigate Stoneman Douglas principal Ty Thompson on whether he violated district policy by not ensuring that he knew about all potential threats on campus.

“It’s not part of the protocol to bring [threats] to me,” Thompson said in an interview with the commission. “Very rarely does that come up.”

Thompson was only able to guess the number of official threat assessments the school conducted on students each year and “really had no idea of the process.”

One of the monitors saw the gunman, who he described as “crazy boy,” enter the school. However, he did not issue a “code red,” which would have signaled a threat inside the building and kept students behind locked doors, because he had been trained not to set off a law enforcement response unless he saw a gun or heard gunshots. The other monitor hid in a closet when he heard gunfire.

Report Outlines Physical Security Failures

In addition to safety protocol, the report found many problems in the school’s physical security. The school had no public address system speakers in the hallways, which kept administrators from telling students and staff to seek shelter.

Only two of the 30 classrooms in the building where the shooting occurred had marked “hard corners” where students can’t be seen by an intruder peering through the window of a classroom door. Many of these corners were blocked by furniture and were too small to fit all the students, which the commission says contributed to students being killed.

Classrooms were also not equipped with coverings to block door windows, making students visible to the gunman.

“Cruz only shot people within his line of sight and never entered any classroom,” said the report.

Additionally, campus gates were not staffed by security personnel and the front gate was left open after school had started.

Report Gives Recommendations, Including Arming Teachers

The commission’s report also gives recommendations for improvement, including full internal evaluations of both police and school personnel responses.

The report suggests Broward County law enforcement and fire/EMS agencies establish protocols for a unified command at all mass casualty incidents. It also suggests BSO revise its active assailant policy to make it “unequivocally clear” that deputies are expected to immediately seek out an active assailant.

“We look forward to reviewing the commission’s findings,” read a statement from BSO Sheriff Scott Israel regarding the findings. “We will use it as a basis to conduct our own thorough investigation, and we’ll take appropriate steps to make any necessary improvements.”

As for the school, one recommendation given by the commission is to update processes for handling threat assessments. The forms are on paper and the finished paperwork remains at the school in the student’s record.

Threat assessments “are one of the most important opportunities to provide a safer school environment and head-off concerning behavior before it manifests into actual harm,” the commission reported.

Threat assessments regarding the gunman were mishandled on multiple occasions by several employees. The commission recommends the principal be made aware of all threats.

The report also suggests limiting entry and exit points, restricting visitors during school hours and always keeping classroom doors locked.

Broward Superintendent Robert Runcie sent a follow-up letter to the commission Wednesday detailing steps the district has taken in response to the commission’s findings. Some of the improvements include providing live video feeds from school surveillance cameras to law enforcement and holding “code red” trainings for students and staff. Runcie also added that he will contract with a third-party investigator to “undertake further investigations.”

“The purpose is to both bring appropriate accountability and to improve the quality of educational services in the safest environment possible,” he wrote.

Possibly most controversial of the commission’s recommendations is arming teachers.

On Wednesday, the commission voted 13-1 to recommend the Legislature allow the arming of teachers who volunteer and undergo extensive background checks and training, reports The Chronicle. Max Schachter, whose 14-year-old son Alex died in the shooting, cast the one vote against the motion.

“We do need more good guys with a gun on campus — nobody understands that and wishes we had more at Marjory Stoneman Douglas than myself,” Schachter said. But arming teachers “creates a host of problems.”

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, the commission’s chairman, said most deaths in school shootings happen within the first few minutes before first responders arrive.

“We have to give people a fighting chance, we have to give them an opportunity to protect themselves,” he said, adding there aren’t enough officers or money to hire one for each school. Even then, they need backup. “One good guy with a gun on campus is not enough.”

CSUN Police Chief Anne P. Glavin says the person responsible for either threat has not been identified and the school is working with the LAPD to investigate.

Off-campus exam options were provided for students on Wednesday, but the campus remained open based on the threat level and information from the police.

During a press conference, President Dianne F. Harrison said police do not believe there is an “imminent threat,” however, precautions will still be taken.

“Sadly, the world in which we live requires we take threats of violence and expressions of hate seriously – even when there is no evidence to suggest that the threatened acts are likely to materialize,” said Harrison.

Students are feeling worried about their safety and are looking for more information, especially after the Thousand Oaks shooting, the local shooting last month where 13 people died.

Over 10,500 people signed an online petition to close campus on Wednesday.

“Every threat should be credible and taken into consideration and investigated and anything that can be done to stop it should be done, even if it’s not real,” said Denise King, CSUN freshman.

]]>https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/university/csun-2-mass-shooting-threats/feed/0Santa Fe ISD Sees Enrollment Drop After School Shootinghttps://www.campussafetymagazine.com/safety/santa-fe-isd-enrollment-drop/
https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/safety/santa-fe-isd-enrollment-drop/#respondFri, 14 Dec 2018 14:25:23 +0000http://www.campussafetymagazine.com/?p=61003There are 200 fewer students enrolled in the Santa Fe ISD this year compared to last after a student gunman shot and killed 10 people in May.

]]>A Houston-area school district saw a four percent enrollment rate drop this school year following a mass shooting that claimed 10 lives back in May.

Around 200 fewer students are now attending schools in the Santa Fe Independent School District compared to the 2017-2018 school year, reports KERA News. Half of the loss comes from Santa Fe High School where a student gunman opened fire in an art class on May 18, killing eight students and two teachers.

The Santa Fe area is also dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey that left approximately 23 percent of its high school students with flooded homes or no access to basic necessities. District spokeswoman Patti Hanssard said some families still haven’t been able to return to their homes.

School officials acknowledge that the shooting may have had a noticeable impact on this year’s enrollment numbers.

“We understand that families in our community are going through a very difficult healing and recovery process, and it will continue to take a very long time to work through these traumatic experiences and rebuild their lives,” said Hanssard. “Parents must make the best decisions for their students, and we support them in doing so.”

Parent Kendra Hammond, who pulled her daughter from the school following the shooting and had previously pulled her son back in 2014, criticizes how the district responded to the shooting.

Hammond questions the decision to allow students back in the school a week after the shooting and the fact that the school’s new counselors’ offices were placed just feet away from the art room where the shooting happened, reports The Chronicle.

However, Santa Fe isn’t the only school district that saw an enrollment drop following a school shooting. Frank DeAngelis, who was the principal at Columbine High School in 1999 when two students shot and killed 13 people, said nearly 20 percent of students did not return to school.

“A lot of it was really the parents. They were concerned,” DeAngelis said. “We did have students who were given the opportunity by our school district to go to other schools. A lot of kids were home-schooled because coming back to the building traumatized them.”

On the contrary, not all school districts that have experienced a mass shooting have seen an enrollment drop. Following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that claimed 17 lives, only 19 students did not return for the 2018-2019 school year, which is only a 0.6 percent drop.

]]>UPDATE Dec. 17: The person who alerted authorities about the teen’s plans to shoot up the school was the gunman’s mother, reports ABC News. The 14-year-old boy did not attend the school but lived in the area. The community held a vigil for his mother on Sunday.

Richmond (Ind.) Community Schools received a tip Thursday morning saying an armed person was headed to the school with the intention of hurting someone.

Police were immediately notified and able to stop the gunman, a 14-year-old boy, from harming anyone, reports CBS News.

Gunfire was exchanged between the teen and police at Dennis Intermediate School until the suspect shot out the glass of a locked door to the school and ran inside. Officers pursued him, exchanged more gunfire, and the suspect eventually took his own life.

All Richmond Community Schools went on lockdown early that morning before the police or gunman arrived.

“Local police had received information and they reacted on that swiftly, and I think [it was] because of their swift reaction and also the swift reaction at the school that no student injuries happened,” said Police Sgt. John Bowling.

Around 8 a.m., the Richmond school district reported the building was secure.

“All students at Dennis Intermediate School are safe. Only the suspect is injured,” the school district tweeted.

Students were transported to Richmond High School and parents were able to pick them up at Civic Hall.

Bowling says it is unclear why the teen, a former student in the district but not Dennis Middle School, targeted the middle school. Police will be looking into the matter further and investigating how the boy obtained the firearm.

Campus Safety will continue to update this article as more information becomes available.

]]>https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/safety/shooter-richmond-middle-school-teen-suspect-dead/feed/0Calif. School Where Student with Autism Died Violated State Lawshttps://www.campussafetymagazine.com/safety/student-with-autism-died/
https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/safety/student-with-autism-died/#commentsThu, 13 Dec 2018 14:29:33 +0000http://www.campussafetymagazine.com/?p=60906The 13-year-old died two days after he lost consciousness while being physically restrained by a staff member at Guiding Hands School.

]]>The school where a student with autism died last month after being restrained violated several state regulations, according to a preliminary investigation by the Department of Education.

Max Benson, a 13-year-old student at Guiding Hands School in El Dorado Hills, Calif., lost consciousness after being physically restrained by a staff member on Nov. 28, reports NPR.

A teacher was performing CPR on Benson when police arrived at the school. He was then taken to the hospital in critical condition where he died two days later.

A statement released by the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office said Benson became violent and “needed to be restrained by school staff, to prevent the injury of staff and students”. Two classmates claim Benson was restrained for kicking a wall.

The statement also described Benson as six feet tall and 280 pounds with severe autism. The family’s lawyer, Seth Goldstein, says Benson was eight inches shorter and 50 pounds lighter than what the statement claimed.

“He was not an unmanageable child in any sense of that term in terms of that size,” he said.

Goldstein also said Benson is not severely autistic and describes him as “highly intelligent, very verbal and was not what somebody would call severe.”

A letter from the California Department of Education said the restraint was applied “for longer than necessary” with “an amount of force which is not reasonable and necessary under the circumstances”. Benson was put in a face-down restraint position for nearly an hour, according to The Sacramento Bee.

The letter also said the restraint was used as an “emergency intervention” in response to “predictable behavior”, which violates state regulations.

Guiding Hands School provides educational services to students with special needs and each student has an “individualized education program” that is designed specifically for their them. The department found the school did not follow Benson’s individual plan.

As a result of the preliminary investigation, the state suspended the school’s certification for one year on Dec. 5. The suspension allows the school to stay open but it cannot accept new students.

Several parents have chosen to pull their children from the school, including Melissa Lasater, who claims her son has also been restrained and often comes home with bruises.

Lasater is organizing protests to take place in front of the Department of Education building in an effort to get the state to shut down the school.

“They act like they did a real big thing by stopping new students from coming but that does nothing to protect the vulnerable children that are already there, and that’s unacceptable,” Lasater added. “They’re all still there with the same staff, who are trained in the same techniques, who are going to use them the same way. They use them as punishment.”

]]>A new investigative report alleges there have been over 500 cases of reported child sexual abuse at U.S. summer camps in the past 55 years.

The exposé, released Monday by CBS News, says it has found reports of 578 instances of child sexual abuse dating back to the 1960s. The report also claims 21 children have been sexually abused at summer camps in the past year alone.

Jon Conte, a social work professor at the University of Washington, says camps can foster opportunities for sexual predators.

“I think it’s isolation from parents, it’s out of a normal routine. Some kids are a little bit older and they’re feeling more independent, and they may have a false sense of security,” Conte told CBS.

An estimated 14 million children are enrolled in summer camps each year and there are no required background checks for employees in 18 states. Furthermore, eight states have no requirements for overnight camps to be licensed.

Experts also point out that possible criminal records for the 20,000 camp counselors who come overseas to work may not show up in a background check.

“It’s a big problem,” says Rania Mankarious, chief executive officer at Crime Stoppers Houston. “If we can level the playing field, create national standards that all camps have to uphold to for accreditation, for licensing, for permitting, for certification, then you start making it more difficult for predators to find their way in.”

The mother of a boy who accused his camp counselor of abusing him in 2009 suggests parents check with organizations, such as the American Camp Association and Praesidium, before choosing a summer camp for their children. Both organizations monitor summer camps and give safety accreditations.

Many colleges often host on-campus activities that involve minors, including overnight summer camps. Omar Andujar, the director of youth conference services for the University of Florida, wrote an article for Campus Safety a few years back about best practices for on-campus activities involving minors.

]]>https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/safety/child-sexual-abuse-summer-camps/feed/02 Nuns Embezzle $500K from Catholic School for Trips, Gamblinghttps://www.campussafetymagazine.com/safety/nuns-embezzle-500k-catholic-school/
https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/safety/nuns-embezzle-500k-catholic-school/#respondTue, 11 Dec 2018 20:43:27 +0000http://www.campussafetymagazine.com/?p=60782The nuns have allegedly been using tuition fees and donations for the school to gamble and take casino trips for as long as 10 years.

]]>Two nuns working at St. James Catholic School in Torrance, Calif., have allegedly taken as much as $500,000 in tuition, fees and donations.

That figure is only what auditors have been able to find in six years of bank records, reports the Press Telegram. With the scheme going on for as long as ten years, there could have been more transactions, especially if they paid with cash.

The small K-8 school announced that it had notified police saying Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper and Sister Lana Chang, who have worked at the school for decades, were “involved in the personal use of a substantial amount of school funds.”

Kreuper, who was the school’s principal, and Chang, who was a teacher, both retired earlier this year.

Officials say the nuns were using the money to pay for gambling and trips to Las Vegas, according to CBS News.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles initially did not want to criminally charge the nuns after the nuns’ order, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, confirmed the nuns would pay the school full restitution.

However, after receiving pressure from parents and the media, the Archdiocese supports the case being prosecuted.

“They [officials of the Archdiocese] indicated they were desirous of pressing charges, so we’re moving forward as soon as we formally meet with them again,” said Torrance Sgt. Ronald Harris.

Current and past St. James parents have been going through bank records since learning of the embezzlement. Officials have found tuition checks were being deposited into an account the nuns were using personally.

One mother, Debby Rhilinger, has located $45,000 worth of checks that went to the suspicious account.

“We are completely devastated and feel very betrayed,” Rhilinger said.

Monsignor Michael Meyers assured parents in a statement that the embezzlement will not affect their children’s education.

“…no student or program at St. James has suffered any loss of educational resources, opportunities, or innovations,” he wrote.